-
Dark Chocolate Shortbread Tart
Is it me, or does this just scream Valentine’s Day? It’s decadent and indulgent, a dark chocolate custard atop a buttery, shortbread crust. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough – how about the heaping mound of sweet whipped cream right on top? I’m pretty sure this is why we have Valentine’s Day. So we can eat things like this. Let’s just have another look, shall we? I’m a big fan of a standard graham cracker crust, and even a good chocolate wafer crust – but…
-
A Playroom Makeover: Part 1
I am so excited to be back with another Lemon Sugar remodel project, and especially excited to be working with my friends at Organized Living again! If you remember, we teamed up several months ago to tackle my pantry remodel, and it turned out SO good that we’ve decided to take on a bigger and more challenging space – a playroom for my girls! This project is a little bit bigger and more involved because we didn’t have an existing space to work with. Instead,…
-
Homemade Marshmallow Peeps
You’ve had Peeps candies, right? Is there anyone out there who hasn’t? I used to absolutely despise them when I was a kid. My mom loved them,so it was without fail that we always had a package or two (or five) in our Easter baskets – to me, they had a funky food-coloring taste and were always a little too squishy. Blech. But then, at some point, we (my siblings and I) discovered two things. One, that stale Peeps are way better than fresh Peeps. They get…
-
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my readers – wishing you a joyful, safe and peaceful day with friends and family. From the bottom of my heart, thanks for making my 2012 a great one. ♥erin
-
Peach Pie with Buttermilk Crust
I’ve eaten approximately 167 peaches this week. That’s because when I go shopping for produce, and I see big, fleshy, perfectly ripe, juicy peaches, I feel the need to buy three of four bags of them. I can’t say no. I’ve really tried. But then, as I’m walking away, this little voice inside my head reminds me that peaches are not a year-round thing. If I don’t eat them now, if I don’t stuff myself full of them, then it’s going to be a long,…
-
Devil’s Fudge Cupcakes
These cupcakes have possibly the longest name ever. They are actually Devil’s Fudge Cupcakes, filled with Whipped Chocolate Ganache and frosted with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream. Holy Cow. They’re deserving of the long title. They earned it. They’re magnificent. The cupcake is moist and has a really wonderful chocolate flavor. The whipped ganache is light but rich, and pairs really nicely with the white chocolate cream cheese buttercream. Yes, you read that correctly. White Chocolate. Cream Cheese. Butter. What could possibly be wrong with…
-
Three Layer Oreo Bars
So my life goes like this: yesterday my husband was out with his buddies, so I had an evening to myself. The girls went to bed at 8pm, and I marched right now the stairs, made a big glass of iced tea, bought the girliest-chick-flick ever, and pulled out my big stack of neglected magazines. It was awesome…for about three minutes. Precisely three minutes into my chick-flick, my youngest daughter was calling from the top of the stairs. It was “fundering” and she was scared.…
-
Rigatoni with Creamy Marsala Sauce
I know, it’s surprising. Another pasta dish! This is a new one for us, but it sounded good tonight and we had all of the ingredients so we decided to try it out. This pasta is actually called “Rigatoni di Gregorio” but since I changed it a little, I’m not sure that it really qualifies as such anymore. We grilled the chicken instead of pan-frying it, and I added green olives in lieu of parsley, mostly because my girls won’t eat “green stuff” on their…
-
A Playroom Makeover: Part 3 – The Reveal!
I can’t believe we are FINALLY done with the playroom! It’s been months of work – squeezing in an hour or two here and there after work, a few hours on the weekends. Yes, we could have paid someone to come in and just do it all for us, but we honestly do enjoy doing it ourselves – the end result always makes it worth it. There’s really nothing better than that sense of accomplishment after finishing a big project. If you want…
-
Chocolate Chip Graham Cracker Bars
You can actually SEE how delicious these are. You can see the powdery sugar stuck to the gooey, chocolaty graham cracker cookie. You can SEE it, can’t you? And yup – they taste just as good as they look. Maybe better. I broke all of the July-in-Kansas rules today and turned my oven on. Yes, I turned my oven on even though it was exactly 900 degrees outside today. And with the heat-index, it felt like 950 degrees. But I just had to make these…
-
Tomato & Basil Bruschetta
Two quick things today. One is related to the picture above, and one is a story that you must endure to get to the yumminess. So, first of all, my four year old says the cutest-ever things right now. She’s right between that baby-talk and big-kid speak…and she makes up words and misuses words all of the time and it’s so stinkin’ adorable that I can’t even stand it. For instance, instead of “accident,” she says “ax-ca-dent.” Like, “Sorry, Mommy, but it was just an…
-
King Cake, Filled Two Ways
I’m feeling very out-of-sorts and distracted today. We’re in the middle of a very busy week, mostly the fault of my first grader. Between after-school basketball camp, dance class, gymnastics and a dance-clinic performance, our evenings are shot. Oh, dinner you say? What’s that? Laundry? How many times can you wear a pair of jeans before they’re truly dirty?
